3 Things Thursday: Cycling, Running, & CFB

CYCLING - Sunday we went on a 9 mile bike ride in 25+ mph winds.  I had wanted to go farther, but the wind was horrible, so we called it a day after 9.  Made up for it on Monday with a 30.2 mile ride.  Took a different route than usual, so it was more of an adventure.  It's nice to mix things up sometimes.  Experienced our first roadside flat of the year, on my bike no less.  Luckily, it was the front, so it was easy to take care of.

RUNNING - Monday morning I also met my running friends for another 5 mile run.  And followed it up with 2 miles with the dogs, walking half and running half.  This was before the bike adventure.  Tuesday was scheduled to be a track day.  I did show up at the track, but when mentioning to Coach about what I did on Monday and the fact that I was feeling sore all over, he suggested that I skip the track workout for active recovery instead.  So I went home and walked the dogs again.  I think that was a good call; I felt much better the next day.

CALCIUM FRUCTOBORATE (CFB) - I've been doing some research on supplements that might help my knee.  There has been a lot of recent press about CFB having a positive impact on knee osteoarthritis, so I've been taking it for about a week now.  There are some other exciting benefits about this form of boron, namely an increase in Vit D levels without taking more D.  It seems to improve absorption.   It is widely known in the scientific community that developed nations are experiencing boron depletion in the soil.  What seems to be a new finding is what effect the boron depletion has had on our bodies, and the positive impacts of supplementing with it.  I recommend everyone looking into this and consider whether you might benefit from it.

Retail Therapy

On Thursday, I had lunch with my running partner. Afterwards, we decided to stop in at Dick's Sporting Goods for a little retail therapy. We ended up buying matching Nike "Running Wild" shirts with the intention of wearing them at an upcoming Women's race.

When I was putting it away, I realized how well the "Wild" matched one of my new pairs of Puma shorts.  Decided it was too cute not to try out, and got it in my head to wear it Saturday for our group run.

However, we had smokey skies on Friday due to a wild fire in southern New Mexico, and the group cancelled.  Drat!  It seemed the debut of my cute running outfit was going to be postponed

I texted a couple of my running friends because I really didn't think it was that bad. We decided to meet anyway.

I felt great on my 5 mile run despite questionable air quality. When I got home, I got the leashes so that I could take the dogs for our regular 2 mile walk and actually decided to run about half of it!  Haven't done that (run with the dogs) for a *long* time.  

Moral of the story?  Never underestimate the motivational power of a cute running outfit. 

Evening at the Track

As I mentioned in a previous post, I never used to like track workouts, but they are growing on me this year.  Went back last night and had a pretty good workout.

Started with a warm up of about 1.3 miles, then went into 400s with 200 walk in between.  Holy Buckets, that was tough!  I didn't really know how fast I was running until looking at the data afterwards.

Looks like the best one was at a 7:20 pace and the slowest was 8:30 pace, averaging somewhere around 8:00 min/mi.  For me that's pretty darn fast, a pace I cannot maintain much past a quarter mile. It's probably good that I didn't look at my Garmin while I was running, I probably would have pysched myself out.

BTW, those shorts I posted about last time are awesome.  I actually found some in other colors on clearance online.  Just waiting for them to arrive. Score!

Mid-week Miscellany

Went to Marshall's the other day and scored two pair of Puma "Lincoln" shorts (see photo).  I haven't had a chance to try them out running, but I like the colors, style, and fit.  Has anyone tried these?

This weekend we were originally planning to do the Santa Fe (half) Century.  However, that's now off the table.  This week is busy with commencement activities for my daughter.  Last night, the Seniors Honors Assembly.  Tonight the Commencement itself.  Sunday (day of Century) is the Graduation Ceremony at church.

My son is home from Berkeley for the week.  He goes back Sunday evening.  Sure was nice to have both kids home on Mother's Day.

Track Workouts

Last night I did an actual structured workout at the track. The format was as follows:

• 3/4 mile warm up
• Drills (an assortment)
• 8x200m with 100m walk between
• Reverse direction walk around the track cool down

It felt good to do something structured, and I was happy to be able to put in my best 200 at the end.

Here's how it looks from my Garmin (I turned it off when we were standing still getting instruction between drills, otherwise, I just left it running the whole time):

I don't normally enjoy track workouts, but this time I did.  How about you?  How do you feel about track workouts?

Run for the Zoo 5K Summary

Preface

• My training hasn't been going well.  I was having problems with my knee that kept me from training the way that I wanted to. I've been running conservatively and my knee seems okay at the moment. However, this past week I started having problems with my back.  
• I told Husband that I wanted to come in under 31 minutes, preferably closer to 30 minutes.  That's quite a bit slower than those ~28 minute 5Ks that I was doing last year, but seemed doable under the circumstances and I just really wanted to finish without pain, finish strong, and have fun.

Inspiration

• "If you don't like something, change it;  if you can't change it, change the way you think about it."  - Mary Engelbreit

The Good

• I started, I ran, I finished.
• As usual, this is a well organized race with lots of volunteers.
• No knee pain, no significant back pain.
• Officially placed 41 of 111 F45-49, 1065 of 2175 total participants.  Sounds pretty much middle of the pack to me.  Nothing wrong with that.

The Bad

• My Garmin says 31:53, exactly the same as my Garmin read last year at this race.  Last year I ran this after several months off, so I was happy with my time.  However this year, I've been running (albeit not very consistently) since mid-February, and for that reason I'm not so happy.   [Official time: 31:48 10:12 pace.]
• Last year it was cold and windy for this race.  This year it was sunny and warm.  It was definitely more comfortable this year, but I wish it had been a bit cooler. 
• I wanted to finish strong, and while I did run the last stretch quite a bit faster than the rest of the run, I never really pushed it the entire time so it was more of a relatively strong finish rather than an actual strong finish.  
• I am disappointed.  Logically, I should not be unhappy with my time because I treated this more like a training run than a race, but I still find myself feeling disappointed.  It's not so much that I'm disappointed with how I executed the race, I'm disappointed that I'm not where I want to be because my body isn't cooperating.  

The Ugly

• Other than my attitude right now, nothing.

More Inspiration (because I need it right now)

• "To be upset over what you don't have is to waste what you do have." - Ken S Keyes, Jr.  

April Tally

Numbers

• 43.2 miles walking
• 24.9 miles running
• 95.2 miles cycling
• 11 workouts included hills

Thoughts

• I feel like my running isn't doing very well because of my knee, but I'm pleased with my cycling and walking volume and so is my knee.  My back decided to act up at the end of the month as well.  Sigh. Trying to be happy with what I can do, and not lament what I cannot.

Plans

• Run for the Zoo 5K
• Santa Fe (half) Century 

Was out of town for about a week.  Back now.  Lots of blogs to catch up on...